Flew NZ2 from Auckland to London via Los Angeles. This is the first time I have flown long haul with Air New Zealand and was very pleasantly surprised!

CHECKING IN:The checking in process was smooth. I had a bit of a wait as there was only one person at the business desk at Auckland initially – and there were 3 people ahead of me (including one lady asking for an upgrade from the sound of it…) – luckily another desk opened up and things went quite smoothly once that happened!

LOUNGE:The Koru Lounge in Auckland is a lovely space. It is divided into different sections and is very comfortable. I didn’t eat much (knowing that I would have at least a 3 course meal once on board) – however, the wine selection was good and the bubbles went down well! Wifi worked well (occasionally a bit slow!).

I also got to experience the LA Koru Lounge whilst in transit — I was initially worried that it would take too long to get through US immigration to get to the lounge, but it all flowed very well and they seem to have a good system. It was nice to be able to go into the airport rather than just the transit lounge (especially as I had a terrible headache and had to buy some tylenol) — the LA lounge was again well set out but smaller than Auckland’s. The showers were good but there was no one manning the showers so I wasn’t sure if I had to book a shower or not, plus there were only 3 showers. Food/drink looked good but didn’t have any as wasn’t hungry.

BOARDING:There didn’t seem to be a dedicated section to board for BP in Auckland – it was a bit of a free-for-all – but things moved quickly. I was annoyed by the FA on board who barely glanced at my ticket and tried to direct me to economy — um, no – I think I might go to my seat 1A instead!! No apology and was quite offended by the unspoken assumption that I wasn’t “BP” enough (judging from those around me, it might have been because I was about 10 years younger than any other passenger in BP!)…

However, once on board, some bubbles and a comfy seat made me much happier 🙂

SEAT:This is an interesting seat – it looks like it might be quite narrow but once you’re in it, it feels very comfortable and spacious. One of the arm rests goes down if you are feeling a little cramped (I only put it down when the seat was made up for sleeping) – for those people who haven’t used the seat, a mini-tutorial was given by the FA’s. It was all pretty easy to use, however.

As a bed, the seat really comes into its own. Yes, you have to get up to change it, but the back of the seat has a soft mattress and the added foam mattress makes for a very cosy bed. The duvet was good and I loved the large pillows. I only managed 3hrs of solid sleep (plus another 3hrs of dozing) but that was due to some turbulence on the first flight and a bit of a sore back on the second flight.

The only down side of the seat is the lack of storage – I was able to store my iPad and glasses and that was about it! But there was plenty of overhead storage, so it didn’t bother me too much.

SERVICE:Excellent. Apart from my initial problem with the FA (who, interestingly, was the FA in charge for the flight!) – the service was very good. They were down a FA on the LA to London flight and there was a message on the entertainment screen about that – however, all the FA did an excellent job despite the fact they were short. Was very impressed.

FOOD & DRINKGood choice of wines and bubbles. The wines were well matched to the food. The food was excellent – good choice (in fact, too much choice at times!!) – although the servings seemed small, once you had 3 courses (had to skip the cheese & crackers!), you were pretty full!

ENTERTAINMENT:Very good. I didn’t watch any of the movies, but there was a lot of choice including quite a few older movies (eg: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and a good selection of current movies. I did watch a few TV shows – including Smash (pity there were only 4 episodes – would have loved to have watched the whole first season!), Bones (season 6) and Wallander (alas, only 2 episodes). Music was also very good. I particularly liked the playlist where you could pick songs/TV shows/movies and put them onto a playlist.

PUNCTUALITY:Excellent – our flight was scheduled to land at 10:45am in London, we actually got to London by 10:15 and arrived at the gate and got off by 10:30am (short wait – had to circle for a bit then we had to wait for a plane to move out of our allocated gate) — through immigration, picked up bags and out by 11am – pretty impressed!!

OVERALL:Not a perfect product, but pretty close to it. I am already looking forward to my return flight and would definitely recommend it to others.